Creating photo collages with AKVIS Chameleon is fun! This ingenious software makes the process easy and entertaining. Earlier one had to thoroughly select an object for pasting into a new background; with this software this tedious part of work is no longer necessary. You can concentrate on being creative and forget about complicated selection techniques. There are four operating modes, each with their own unique features.

In Montage mode, you can take a rectangular part of the source image and then use two pencils – red and blue – to roughly indicate the parts that should appear on the resulting photo collage – for instance, a person, and the parts that should blend away – the rest of the background and irrelevant objects. The selected object will blend into the background, without losing its original color or opacity.

In Chameleon mode, from which the program gets its name, and object is pasted into a picture in such a way that the object adapts to the new color range and blends with the background, as chameleons do. In this way you can add clouds to a clear sunset landscape and the clouds will take on a red tint and their borders will smoothen to blend with the background. Or you can paste a new nose onto a face and the nose will acquire the complexion of the “receiving” face.

Blend mode works in a similar fashion to Chameleon mode, in that it adjusts the color range and smoothes the borders of an object, but in addition it makes the object semi-transparent, so that the color and texture of the background can be seen through. It is useful when you want an object to "dissolve" into the background.

In Emersion mode, as in Montage, images can be combined to create a seamless photo montage. However, in Emersion Mode the pasted fragment does not overlay the background, but embeds into the background so that only certain parts of the fragment are visible. In this mode it is possible to make collages with difficult objects (trees, or apply a graffiti to the wall, etc). In Version 7 of Chameleon, processing in Emersion has been improved.

The tool can be helpful to home users who are not experienced in image editing. You can create customized postcards for your loved ones; make a wedding album using all kinds of photos and backgrounds; correct closed eyes (by implanting open eyes from another photo of the series), change the appearance of a person, etc.

Designers will appreciate this tool as it allows them to combine images with entirely different color ranges or to create the effect of drawing on a texture surface (crumpled paper, wood, etc), and all that with only a mouse-click.

The latest version of AKVIS Chameleon, Version 7.0, includes many new features and improvements.

AKVIS Chameleon is now available as a standalone program. You can take advantage of Chameleon's features without needing an image editor.

In Version 7 of Chameleon, the Keep Area, Drop Area, and Eraser tools that were originally only in Montage mode are now available in all four modes.

Chameleon and Blend modes now have a new parameter, Smooth Transition. When this parameter is activated, you can manage the transition (anti-aliasing) along the borders of an inserted object.

Images are now processed in Emersion mode faster.

It is now possible to load a foreground image (from which a fragment is taken) directly from the plug-in, without needing to select that image in an image editor.

The plug-in version of AKVIS Chameleon is compatible with Adobe Photoshop and Photoshop Elements, Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo, PhotoImpact, Corel Photo-Paint and other popular software. The plug-in also now has support for 64 bit (compatibility with Adobe Photoshop CS4 64 bit). AKVIS Chameleon V. 7.0 for Windows runs on Microsoft Windows XP/Vista/Win 7 and the Macintosh version runs on the Mac OS X platform. Compatibility with Windows 7 and Mac OS X 10.6 has been improved.

For a free trial, AKVIS offers 10 days of fully functional use. The users who tried the previous version of Chameleon and have their version expired, now have the opportunity to test the software again.

Users of versions 5 and 6 of AKVIS Chameleon can upgrade for free. If you use an older version (versions 1-4) you will need pay for an upgrade.